Silvio Calabi: The non-ferrous F-150 is the truck to beat - MetroWest Daily News
To keep from using Ford’s new F-150 pickup just as a daily driver, and then bitching about people who do that, I went and got a load of topsoil with it, and then a thousand pounds of granite steppers. This is the first full-size pickup with a body — cab and cargo bed — made of high-grade aluminum. The frame, mostly of new high-strength steel, is stiffer but lighter, too. Result: a weight loss of up to 750 pounds, depending on configuration. Rather than bet on a new President next year to roll back tightening fuel-economy standards, Ford is trying to meet them. Our sample F-150, a 145-inch-wheelbase 4X4 Supercab, barely squeezed into my driveway, but it also managed to squeeze 23 miles out of a gallon of regular gas, at least when it wasn’t full of landscaping materials. This is not revolutionary, but it’s good for a huge and powerful 4WD truck, and it’s also what last week’s Hyundai Santa Fe achieved — a four-cylinder vehicle that’s three-quarters the size of this F-150. So much weight loss should also mean more... With 325 horsepower and 375 pounds-feet of torque, it’s a V-6 that thinks it’s a V-8, and it appears to be the smallest, lightest and most efficient engine in a full-size pickup. (Keeping weight out of the nose is another good way to make front-heavy trucks handle better. Source: www.metrowestdailynews.com
